Thermal imaging cameras are used in a variety of situations. For example, thermal imaging cameras are often used during maintenance inspections to thermally inspect equipment. Example equipment may include rotating machinery, electrical panels, or rows of circuit breakers, among other types of equipment. Thermal inspections can detect equipment hot spots such as overheating machinery or electrical components, helping to ensure timely repair or replacement of the overheating equipment before a more significant problem develops.
Depending on the configuration of the camera, the thermal imaging camera may also generate a visible light image of the same object. The camera may display the infrared image and the visible light image in a coordinated manner, for example, to help an operator interpret the thermal image generated by the thermal imaging camera. Unlike visible light images which generally provide good contrast between different objects, it is often difficult to recognize and distinguish different features in a thermal image as compared to the real-world scene.
Thermal noise, especially in low contrast thermal images, may pose additional problems when attempting to distinguish features within the images. Noise comparable with the temperature differences across an image may significantly alter the appearance of an image, making distinguishing between features even more difficult. While image averaging techniques have been used in the past to attempt to eliminate some of this random noise, these techniques have created additional image issues such as blurred edges and ghosting effects.